1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hearing protection and communication assembly that includes an effective incorporation of eye protection, hygienic hearing protection, and a means for effective communication in a single, compact assembly that enables a worker in an industrial setting to maintain maximum safety and sanitary conditions while increasing productivity through communicability.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many industrial, mining, or construction related applications, employees are generally required to wear various types of protective gear, such as boots, hard hats, or gloves. Still, however, possibly the most important parts of the body to be protected are the eyes and ears of a worker. In particular, most industrial settings are quite loud such that prolonged exposure to the noise can result in permanent hearing loss. Also, because of the risk of small particles or potentially corrosive fluids being emitted from heavy machinery, a worker's vision can be at great risk if not properly protected. To this end, worker's are commonly required to wear some form of eye protection and/or hearing protection. Indeed, the need for eye and hearing protection frequently go hand-in-hand such that workers will often carry some form of safety goggles in addition to some form of ear coverings or plugs.
Often, the vision and hearing safety equipment is issued to a worker by the company in the form of a pair of protective glasses and a pair of disposable ear plugs. With regard to the ear plugs, although larger, exterior ear coverings which completely encase the ears are available, small, disposable plugs are highly preferred. In particular, the small ear plugs are less bulky, and therefore more comfortable, and are much more sanitary as each individual has their own plugs which are discarded after use. Further, the small ear plugs are much less expensive than the larger external ear covers. As such, if a company does choose to utilize external ear covers it will usually collect them at the end of a shift, and re-issue them immediately to another worker on the next shift, a practice which is not favorable as perspiration and contaminants from a previous user make the previously used external covers uncomfortable to wear and highly un-hygienic as the contaminants may easily be transferred from one worker to the next. As a result, whether to keep employees happy or to meet health guidelines, a business that chooses to use external ear coverings must often have a set of external ear covers available for every employee, an added expense that further dissuades the use of the external covers.
In addition to hearing and vision protection, another important safety consideration at an industrial work sight is communicability. Generally, workers carry a radio, or have some form of communication, such as a computer or a telephone near their work station. Unfortunately, however, workers can become quite isolated in the working environment, as their hearing protection blocks out all exterior noise including the phone or radio. Still, in an emergency it is very important that all of the workers communicate with one another so as to properly alert one another of dangers or shut downs, and so as to be aware of evacuations or other safety related notices.
Safety, however, is not the only reason businesses require communicability with their workers. Businesses also desire communicability to increase worker efficiency and productivity. In particular, if a worker is not informed, and/or cannot inform others of line shut downs, supply deliveries, and many other circumstances, a great deal of money can be lost in down time or defective production. For those reasons it is often vital that a worker be in communication with other workers at all times.
Presently in the art, businesses address the various safety and communicability considerations by issuing their employees separate radios, protective glasses, and ear plugs. Alternatively, some facilities attempt to use a computer work station monitor to provide worker's with a visual signal that they are being communicated with. Still, however, communication is a great inconvenience as workers must often remove their hearing protection to properly communicate. Further, even though some external head phone type ear covers, which provide for some communicability, are available, due to the previously described, expense, inconveniences and un-hygienic conditions associated with their use, those types of devices are not favored in the art and businesses must look to any available alternatives.
Accordingly, safety glasses, hearing protection, and communication devices are still commonly provided to workers separately, and the worker is called upon to manage all of the separate, and often incompatible devices as well as possible. Unfortunately, users who are able to simultaneously wear two or three separate devises find the combined use of the often incompatible apparatuses very inconvenient, bulky, and awkward for use on a day to day basis. Further, to ensure that a worker does not forget or misplace the often expensive equipment, in many instances some or all of the safety equipment, and especially the more expensive equipment such as the communication equipment and exterior head phone type covers, must be turned in each day and reissued the following morning. This practice frequently results in safety glasses, microphones, transmitters, and ear covers being lost, misplaced, or damaged during storage, as the use of several separate devices does not allow for easy convenient storage in one central location. As such, it is very difficult to keep track of all of the various types of safety equipment and a user still has no assurance that they are using all of their own equipment from day to day, a circumstance that is not only un-sanitary, but also can be quite inconvenient to a user who may have to re-size or otherwise adapt their equipment to their comfort requirements.
In the past, others in the arts relating to communication have attempted to provide devices which can transmit audible signals, while dampening exterior noise. These devices, however, tend to be adapted for a single user, do not provide precise communicability in loud industrial environments, and are quite expensive, making them ineffective for an industrial use wherein every worker is protected. For example, the patent to Woods (U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,364) discloses an ear acoustical attenuating device including a spiral type insert portion or a custom molded ear insert. Similarly, the patent to Wilcox, Jr. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,491) discloses an ear-mic headset which contains interior earplugs that fit into a user's ears. Such devices, however, are generally complex, are not suited for a multiple user situation wherein the same device must be shared, and are not cost effective to provide to each individual worker. Also, in the communication field, earphones such as the one provided in the patent to Yoshimi (U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,563) which include an elastic vibration generator/excitor coupled with a sound insulating plug that is structured to propagate the elastic wave therethrough are provided. This device, which has as a primary application the race car industry, does not disclose or suggest efficient, sanitary multi-person use, as the sound transmitting portion, namely the elastic wave propagating plug coupled with the excitor, is to be inserted completely into a user's ear cavity and is not contained such that all of it may become subject to perspiration or contamination. Indeed, such a device requires secure and precise configuration so as to ensure that the waves are effectively propagated through the plug, and as such does not provide for any disposability. Also, despite the generally loud race car environment, industrial environments can often be much louder with may more varied exterior noises such that a device such as Yoshimi's can tend to muffle the audio signal and may not provide sufficient clarity to contrast a large variety of exterior noises. Further, none of these communication devices truly address all of the safety needs that could be achieved by providing a single, ergonomically oriented, sanitary multi-user safety device.
Similarly, other devices in the past, such as the audio eyeglasses of da Silva (U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,345) and the ear protector of Sygnator (U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,526) have attempted to combine some devices. Unfortunately, however, such devices do not fully address a wearer's safety needs, do not address the sanitary considerations associated with a multi-user environment, and are not adapted for comfortable use in a multi-user environment as they are not easily adaptable for a precise fit on user's of different sizes. Specifically, most devices in the art relating to communication devices do not have to be structured around other types of protective equipment and can therefore be secured as part of an over the head mount which can be easily adjusted to a wearer's size without concern as to the position of the overhead mount so long as it supports the assembly.
Accordingly, there is still a need in the specialized art relating to safety equipment for a safety unit which will ensure that worker always has all of the necessary safety devices in a convenient to use array that may be easily and efficiently labeled and re-distributed to assigned employees, thus reducing waste, loss and inconvenience. Further, there is a need for a safety unit which ensures that a user is wearing all of the necessary hearing, vision and communication safety devices and which enables workers in a multi-user/multi-shift environment to effectively and safely share or pass on the safety unit as it is structured to provide quick and precise fitting on user's of varying sizes, complete safety protection and maximum hygiene from user to user as all reusable portions are concealed from direct contact with a wearer.
Moreover, it would be beneficial to provide such a device that provides the wearer with all of the associated benefits, including safety and hygiene, in an attractive appearing device that can be worn by the user in virtually any environment where protection of the eyes, such as from the sun, and protection of the hearing from external noises coupled with the ability to hear a particular desired audio signal clearly, is desirable.